Halo, Then & Now

With the release of the Halo Master Chief collection I thought I would look back and reference a few things of note that happened around each games release. For those that don't know Halo: Combat Evolved was a launch title on Microsoft's first ever console, the original black beast, the Xbox. That was 13 years ago! So let's look back.

Halo: Combat Evolved. Release date; November 15th, 2001, Platform; Xbox

Movies; November 16th, the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, is released, grossing US $975.8 million in first week, becoming the second highest grossing film around the world, behind Titanic.

Music; November 10th, Jennifer Lopez, "I'm Real" is the number 1 song on AT40

Television; November 6th, Twentieth Century Fox's anti-terrorist drama action show 24 (TV series) premieres.

Death; November 29th, George Harrison of the Beatles dies at the age of 58 from lung cancer in Hollywood, California.

Halo 2. Release date; November 9th, 2004, Platform; Xbox

Movies; November 5th, The Incredibles hits theaters grossing $261,441,092

Music; November 13th, Nelly f/ Tim McGraw, "Over And Over" is the number 1 song on AT40

Television; November 1st, The Young and the Restless broadcasts its 8,000th episode.

Death; Rapper Russel Jones (a.k.a. Ol' Dirty Bastard) dies of a drug overdose in a recording studio in New York City.


Halo 3. Release date; September 25th, 2007, Platform; Xbox 360

Movies; November 21st, Resident Evil: Extinction hits theaters, grossing $50,648,679

Music; November 22nd Timbaland f/ Keri Hilson, "The Way I Are" is the number 1 song on AT40 for it's second week.

Television; November 24th, The Big Bang Theory premieres on CBS.

Death; November 29th, Lois Maxwell, 80, Canadian actress, first Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond film series, Golden Globe winner, cancer.



Halo 4. Release date; November 6th, 2012, Platform; Xbox 360

Movies; November 2nd, Wreck-It Ralph hits theaters, grossing $189,412,677

Music; November 3rd, Maroon 5, "One More Night" is the number 1 song on AT40 for it's third week.

Television; November 20th, Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash resigns from Sesame Street amid allegations of sexually abusing underage boys.

Death; November 6th, Panbanisha, 26, American bonobo involved in language studies (Great Ape Trust), common cold

Halo MCC. Release date; November 11th, 2014, Platform; Xbox ONE

Movies; November 5th, Interstellar hits theaters, grossing (five day launch) $49.7 million

Music; November 8th, Iggy Azalea f/ Rita Ora, "Black Widow" is the number 1 song on AT40

Television; I got nothing interesting....

Death; November 11th, Carol Ann Susi, Howard's mom, from the Big Bang Theory dies at 62 to cancer

E3 Microsoft Media Briefing highlights

This morning E3 kicked off and to start the press briefing first is Microsoft, my favorite. Below I will go over some of the highlights with links to for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy.



All links are from this video, if you want to watch it in it's entirety, 1:48:12.
If not continue on for quick links to specific times in the video.

Before the briefing started there was a pre show with Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson in which, among other things, they talk to one of guys from 343 Industries about Halo 4, that is here.

To start the briefing off strong it opens with Halo's trade mark live action trailer.

Which flows seamlessly into game play footage.

Up next is game play for the new Splinter Cell game, Blacklist.

The stream cut out during the FIFA 13 demo, so I found it here. Looks awesome with the Kinect voice integration. Might be the first soccer game I play since Supper Soccer!

A Madden demo is after the FIFA one, but that isn't a highlight to me. But check it out if you enjoy your Madden.

A new Fable game is shown next, The Journey, is totally Kinect controlled by the looks of it.

I didn't even know this next one was coming, one of the reasons I love E3 is some stuff is kept so tight lipped that you don't hear about it until the event. I give you the world premier of Gears of War Judgement!

That was followed directly by Forza III: Horizon.

Bing search has been improved...not that anyone would notice, does anyone use Bing on their Xbox?

Next they went on to talk about new partners in entertainment; Nickelodeon, Paramount Movies, and Machinima.

Now for all you sports lovers, Xbox Sports is adding more partners, last year they started it off with the UFC, this year they added MLB. Coming soon to Xbox there will be NBA and the NHL.

ESPN on Xbox is getting bigger and better.

Take a look at what sports will look like on the Xbox with in the coming year.

Xbox Music is going to get a lot bigger and better too.

Kinect is starting to step up too. With another new partner to the Microsoft family, Nike and Nike+

This next shit is bananas...all I can say is watch this and be blown away by Xbox SmartGlass.

New Tomb Raider origins style game looks great...in more ways than just game play.

A bunch of Twisted Pixel game premiers.

New Resident Evil 6 preview

A new South Park RPG, yes, you read that right. The Stick of Truth.

Dance Central 3 was shown, followed by a performance by Usher for some reason...

To close off the event they show another big name, CoD Black Ops 2, and again, Xbox will receive new content before the other consoles.

That was it for Microsoft. Remember a while back I made a post about how Xbox wants to take over your living room? Well if you don't believe me after all of the above then you are crazy.